This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Do you have any idea how hard it is for a type effect to be included in this chapter? Sure, by the time a type effect winds
up here, with all the glitz and glamour, it's looks like a lot of fun, but believe me, it's a lot of hard work. It all starts
with an open audition for type effects, which takes place in Houston, L.A., New York, and Atlanta. In each city, a panel of
judges then views each aspiring type effect, and from that group they choose only 30 type effects to go to compete in the
regional semifinals. At the semis, the judges then narrow the type effects down to just ten, who will be vying for the title
“Coolest American Type Effect.” Cool American Type Effects, which airs Wednesday nights on FAUX, is hosted by Ryan Seabiscuit, and…. (Do I have to keep this up? Seriously, I was pretty
sure that you would've stopped reading back a hundred words or so, and since I was kind of counting on that, I never really
developed an ending for this intro. So, I'm just kinda going to end it right here. If you don't tell anyone I didn't have
an ending, I won't tell anyone you read this far. Deal? Deal.)

Jaguar “X”

Get the “Maximum File Browser Experience”

If you know you're going to be spending some time in the File Browser (sorting, categorizing, etc.), you can get the “Maximum
File Browser Experience” by holding the Command key (PC: Control key) before you click on the Toggle File Browser button in
the Options Bar. When you do this, it automatically hides the Toolbox and any open palettes, and expands the File Browser
to fill your entire screen. Perfect for those times when you're working mostly in the Browser.

When Apple Computer came out with their “gel” look for Mac OS X, that effect quickly became a favorite with designers. When
Apple followed up with Mac OS X Jaguar, their Jaguar look became popular, but every tutorial I tried on the Web used Photoshop's
Stained Glass filter, and I couldn't find one that really looked like Apple's version; and that's because you can't use that
filter. Here's a version I worked out that I hope you'll agree looks much better.

Step ONE. Open a new document in RGB mode. Click on the Foreground Color Swatch in the Toolbox and set your Foreground color to an orangish-brown
in the Color Picker (I used R=255, G=164, B=59). Now, press the letter “t” to switch to the Type tool and type a capital “X”
(as shown). I used the typeface Garamond Condensed, which is fairly close to the custom version of Garamond that Apple used.

Step TWO. Create a new blank layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette. Press the letter “L” to switch
to the Lasso tool, then draw your first jaguar “spot” somewhere near the top of the left side of the letter (as shown here).

Step THREE. Once your first “spot” selection is in place, hold the Shift key and draw some more (the Shift key lets you add more selections
to your original selection). Make a series of freeform selections in the shape of spots (as shown here). Hint: To make your
shapes more like the ones Apple used, make sure some of your selections go from one side of the letter, right through to the
other.

If you want to move a brush from one location in the Brushes palette (or Brushes Picker), you can do it, but you can't reorder
it within the Brushes palette itself. Nah, that would be too easy (and too obvious). Instead, you have to go under the Edit
menu and choose Preset Manager. Choose Brushes from the pop-up menu, and then click-and-drag the brushes around to your heart's
content. Be somewhat careful, however, because there is no “Undo” or “Cancel” button—only “Done.” But don't be afraid about
losing the default brush set—you can always get it right back by going to the Brushes palette's pop-down menu and choosing
Reset Brushes.

Step FOUR. Switch your Foreground color to a dark brown (I used R=53, G=32, B=0), and then fill your selected “spots” with this brown
color by pressing Option-Delete (PC: Alt-Backspace). Once you've done that, you can then deselect by pressing Command-D (PC:
Control-D).

Step FIVE. To make your spots appear inside the letter “X” only, you can “group” your spots with the letter on the layer beneath it by
pressing Command-G (PC: Control-G). When you do this, you're forcing the spots inside the letter and clipping off anything
that extends outside the “X.” (In Photoshop CS, this is called a “Clipping Mask.” Back in Photoshop 7, it was called a “Clipping
Group.”)

Step SIX. In the Layers palette, you'll see a tiny arrow indicating that the “spot” layer is grouped with the Type layer beneath it
(as shown here). This technique is easier if you merge these two layers together, but you can't merge a regular image layer,
with a Type layer—unless you know this little secret: Just link them together (by clicking once in the second column of the
Type layer), and choose Merge Linked from the Layers palette's pop-down menu (the black, right-facing triangle in the top-right
corner) to merge the brown “spots” layer permanently with the Type layer.

You've been able to hide all your palettes and tools and center your photo on a black background for some time now in Photoshop
(just press “f,” ”f,” then Tab). The only problem is—once your document is centered on screen—it's stuck there. Well, at least
it was until Photoshop CS. Now you can move your image around the screen (while in this Full Screen Mode) by holding the Spacebar
and clicking-and-dragging within the black canvas area. Ain't life grand?

Step SEVEN. Now, duplicate the merged layer (the “X” with the spots inside) by pressing Command-J (PC: Control-J). You'll need this layer
to add color back into the image later, but for now, hide it from view by going to the Layers palette and clicking on the
Eye icon in the first column of the layer (as shown). Next, click on the original “X-with-spots” layer in the Layers palette
to make it active.

Step EIGHT. Hold the Command key (PC: Control key), go to the Layers palette, and click once on the “X-with-spots” layer to put a selection
around the entire letter (as shown here). Now that the entire letter is selected, you'll have to deselect (or subtract) one
“leg” of the letter. That's because you'll have to apply the technique in Steps Ten and Eleven individually to each “leg”
for this to look right. Make sure you have the Lasso tool, then move on to the next step.

Step NINE. Hold the Option key (PC: Alt key) and draw a loose selection around the top right side of the letter. The area you select
will become “unselected” (if there is such a word). That's because you're holding the Option/Alt key. Do the same thing for
the left bottom of the letter (as shown here), leaving just the one “leg” of the letter selected.

For typography freaks only!

If you're a freak about typography (and I know you are), then you'll be glad to know that Photoshop CS has added a number
of high-end type features that only a real typographer could love. Stuff like built-in Titling, Swash, Ordinals, Ornaments,
Stylistic Alternates, and a host of other scary-sounding stuff. These puppies are all accessed through the Character palette's
pop-down menu.

Step ELEVEN. Go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Motion Blur. When the Motion Blur filter dialog appears, drag the direction
of the blur Angle in the circle until it's in the same direction as the letter (as shown here). For Distance, enter 14 pixels,
and then click OK to apply the Motion Blur to your letter. This starts to give the letter the “fur” feel. Deselect by pressing
Command-D (PC: Control-D).

Step TWELVE. Now we're going to do the exact same thing to the other “leg.” Start by Command-clicking (PC: Control-clicking) on the visible
“X” layer (in the Layers palette) to put a selection around the letter. This time you're going to hold the Option key (PC:
Alt key) and use the Lasso tool to remove the selection from the areas to which you've already added noise and blurred. Be
sure to also deselect the area in the middle where the two “legs” intersect, leaving only the un-blurred, noise-free areas
selected.

Getting your type quickly back to its defaults

If you've done some major type tweaking to a line of type (such as manually adjusting the tracking, leading, horizontal scale,
baseline shift, adding Faux Bold, etc.), those settings stay in the Character palette. So when you go to create a new line
of type, you'll often wind up going to each field and resetting everything (changing the leading back to Auto, tracking back
to 0, removing Faux Bold, etc.). Well, you can save a ton of time by just going to the Character palette's pop-down menu and
choosing Reset Character from the bottom of the menu. This instantly returns the palette to all its default settings. This
can really be a HUGE time saver.

Step THIRTEEN. Now apply the same amount of Noise and Motion Blur as we did back in Steps Ten and Eleven, but this time change the Angle
of the Motion Blur to match the angle of this “leg” (as shown here). For the first side of the letter, we used an Angle of
-63°; here we're using +68°. Now deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D).

Step FOURTEEN. Command-click (PC: Control-click) on the layer's name in the Layers palette to select the letter again. Now, switch to the
Dodge tool in the Toolbox (shown here); choose a small, soft-edged brush from the Brush Picker in the Options Bar; and paint
over the left half of each “leg.” As you paint, the area will be lightened (as shown). You'll probably have to paint a few
strokes before you can see the effect from the Dodge tool.

Step FIFTEEN. Now, switch to the Burn tool (it's in the Dodge tool's flyout menu in the Toolbox), and paint over the right half of each
“leg” to darken them a bit. It'll be easier to see the darkened effect as you paint, and luckily, the lightened side will
also become more visible (as shown here). Once you're done, deselect by pressing Command-D (PC: Control-D).

The File Browser doesn't live in the Palette Well anymore

If you've gone up to the Palette Well searching for the File Browser, you've probably already realized it doesn't live there
anymore. Worse than that, you can't even dock it in the Palette Well in Photoshop CS. Instead, Adobe added a button on the
right side of the Options Bar (to the left of the Palette Well) for bringing up the File Browser. You can open and close the
File Browser using this same button. So it's hello tiny button, goodbye Palette Well tab.

Step SIXTEEN. Now you'll sharpen the “X” to help accentuate the “fur” look of the effect. Go under the Filter menu, under Sharpen, and choose
Unsharp Mask. When the Unsharp Mask dialog appears, enter 75% for Amount, 1 for Radius, and use 0 for Threshold. Click OK
to sharpen the fur.

Step SEVENTEEN. Choose Bevel and Emboss from the Layer Styles pop-up menu at the bottom of the Layers palette (the black circle with an “ƒ”).
When the Bevel and Emboss dialog appears, you're only going to change one setting: Increase the Soften setting to 9. Click
OK to apply the Bevel and Emboss, which gives the “X” a more rounded 3D look.

Step EIGHTEEN. Remember that layer we duplicated and hid all the way back at Step Seven? It's time to bring it “into play.” Click on that
layer in the Layers palette to make it the active layer (it should be directly above your “X-with-fur” layer as shown here).

Need to straighten a photo? Let Photoshop do it for you.

If you wind up straightening photos a lot (which you undoubtedly do if you scan a lot of photos), Photoshop CS can now do
the work for you. Just go under the File menu, under Automate, and choose Crop and Straighten Photos. I know what you're thinking,
“Hey, I never saw that before.” That's because it's new.

Step NINETEEN. In the pop-up menu at the top left of the Layers palette, change the Blend Mode of this top layer from Normal to Soft Light
(as shown) to bring back the original colors you applied before the Motion Blur and Noise faded them out.

When you're working in a Filter dialog box (with the exception of the Filter Gallery filters), most of them give you a large
Preview window so you can see how the effect will look before you click OK. However, many of these also have a Preview checkbox,
so you not only see the effect in the Preview window, you actually see the effect applied to your entire image, even before
you click OK. Well, if you'd like to see what your photo looks like without having the filter applied, just click-and-hold within the Filter dialog's preview window, and it will give you the “before”
version (your image without the filter). Release the mouse button, and you see the filter-enhanced version. So for a quick
“before and after” just click within the preview window.

Step TWENTY-TWO. Press the letter “v” to switch to the Move tool, and drag this vertically flipped “X” down until it touches the bottom of
your original “X” (as shown here). Then press “g” to switch to the Gradient tool. Press “d” to switch your Foreground color
to black. Press the Return key (PC: Enter key) and the Gradient Picker will appear at the current location of your cursor.
Choose the third gradient in the Picker (by default, it's the Black to White gradient).

Step TWENTY-THREE. Click on the Add a Layer Mask icon at the bottom of the Layers palette to add a Layer Mask to your flipped layer. Then, click
the Gradient tool at the very bottom of your image area and drag upward until you reach the bottom of the original “X.” This
fades your flipped layer from 100% opacity to 0% opacity at the bottom, giving the impression that the “X” is casting a reflection
(as shown here) to complete the effect.